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The Matrix Visual Comparison

Chris Gould has taken a look at the differing versions of the Wachowski's martial arts action flick. Compared are the region ...

With the release of The Ultimate Matrix Collection just a few days behind us, I thought it might be prudent to perform a brief comparison between the old and new versions of The Matrix. Originally released way back in 1999, the film that eventually spawned a trilogy was, at the time, a cutting edge DVD presentation. In fact, the disc was so cutting edge it wasn’t actually compatible with a lot of DVD players! Thankfully I was one of the lucky ones who experienced no playback issues, which was handy considering I nearly wore my region two copy of the disc out, so often did I play it!

A couple of years on, as my appreciation and understanding of the DVD format continued to grow, I decided it was time to invest in the fabled region four release of the film. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, the region four release reportedly featured superior picture quality to the region one and two efforts, while containing the uncut version of the film (the UK region two release suffered at the hands of the BBFC).

It is this ‘superior’ region four edition that will be used as the benchmark for quality when examining the new digital transfer housed on disc one of the new ‘Ultimate’ set. Additionally, this article has now been updated to incorporate the original region one release to allow for a ‘like for like’ comparison between two NTSC sources. In the shots below, the images are taken from the DVDs in the following order: region four, region one, and region one Special Edition. So, without further ado, let’s move on to the comparison.

Scene One: "Hands on your head!"

Scene Two: "We have the name of their next target."

Scene Three: "Whaddaya think, Dejour?"

Scene Four: "You have a problem with authority, Mr Anderson."

Scene Five: "You help your landlady carry out her garbage."

Scene Six: "Let me tell you why you are here."

Scene Seven: The Matrix

Scene Eight: Dojo Showdown

Scene Nine: Sentinels

Scene Ten: "Ahhh."

Scene Eleven: "I’m a Smith."

Scene Twelve: "Never send a human to do a machine’s job."

Scene Thirteen: The Lobby Shootout

Scene Fourteen: Neo Begins to Believe

Scene Fifteen: "No."

Scene Sixteen: Matrix Code

As you can see from the above images, the new transfer is far closer to the look of the sequels than the original effort. For the most part, contrast is greatly improved, with the superior black levels being the most noticeable change (at times, blacks the original release bordered on grey). Harder to spot in these images is the reduction in grain. Again, the first release contained too much grain, even for a film shot in Super-35. In fact, the Wachowski brothers cited excessive grain as one of the main reasons for this new transfer. Brightness has also been elevated in many scenes, with shots one, seven, eight and sixteen illustrating this perfectly. Oddly enough, the Sentinel in shot nine reveals slightly more detail in the original transfer, although the colours are not as vibrant.

However, perhaps the biggest, and most noticeable change, is the colour timing. The shots above illustrate just how different scenes inside the Matrix now appear, with many of the scenes that used to appear a murky brown now having the familiar green tint. The new transfer really does bring the original film in line with the sequels, and I feel that this is particularly apparent in shots five, eleven and twelve. In scene twelve you can see that the Agents’ suits are now far closer to those in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions than they originally were. Although there may be some who are against the changes made to the film’s pallet, I feel that in this instance the good far outweighs the bad. At least the content of the films hasn’t been ‘tweaked’ like another trilogy I could mention…

Hopefully this short comparison will give those of you debating whether to purchase the new boxed set a glimpse of what’s on offer. To this end it’s worth noting that it’s not only the original film that has received a makeover, but also the sequels. Both follow-ups feature ever-so-slightly cleaner transfers than those found on the two-disc releases, with improved colour and slightly enhanced levels of detail. This is particularly apparent during one scene in The Matrix Reloaded. After beating the Agents at the beginning of the film, Neo flies off to look for the Oracle. While doing his ‘Superman’ thing, Neo flies in front of the moon. It was at this point the original DVD release featured some nasty posterisation and a little bit of blocking. Thankfully this is all but eliminated on the new DVD.

All images we captured using PowerDVD 6.0 at 1280x720 using the default profile, with no software filters applied. The images were then automatically re-sized and compressed into .jpg format by DVDActive's automated upload process. However, as with any level of compression, the introduction of a few minor visual artefacts was unavoidable.

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Bradavon wrote: Fair enough cheers. They're cropped now, huh?If you look more closely, you'll notice that the old and new R1 are just framed differently. The old R4 on the other hand does seem to have more "information" in it for some reason (at least on the sides). Notice the "Dojo Showdown" shot.

Andy, if you can find the limited collection set for the price I did, $32.99, really not a bad deal (that seems to have been a holiday special at Fred's though). Most places carry the plain Ultimate set, minus the Neo bust and display box for$52.00 to $58.00 bucks.

Even if you don't like Reloaded or Revolutions, the extra "revisted" disks for each movie, plus The Animatrix, The Roots of the Matrix, Burly Man Chronicles & Zion Archive disks make it worth the purchase.

Lincoln6Echo wrote: I'm sorry, but going back to the original comparison between the "superior" R4 version and the Ultimate Matrix transfer, and now with the addition of the original R1 transfer, I have to say where on Earth are you getting this so-called adjective of "superior" to decribe the R4 version? The original R1 version is clearly superior to the original R4 version. Both in clarity and in contrast.

I bought the R2 (yes the cut one, you dont have to rub it in!) ultimate set with the NEO statue and then I found at a bargain the brand new/sealed THE MATRIX Special Edition the one in this huge black box with senitypes and posters inside..

They Did a Great transfer in The Box Set for the first movie made it alot better The Ultimate Matrix set is deffintly one of The Best Boxsets on dvd now I just cant wait for The trillogy on Next gen dvds

eh, looks good. but, do we need to spend probably another hundred bucks on a picture that just jacked up the contrast? that seems to be the new "trend" in DVD now. re-release it with contrast and color cranked up...and what will HD DVD or Blue Ray offer a few years from now?? more contrast? more color? I wonder just how many "super duper sets" we will all own when it is all said and done.

Yes, rather than have the redundant black space outside of the 2.35:1 frame using up resolution I cropped them prior to resizing them and uploading them. That way the actual images themselves are bigger. The old images were much too small, but that was a limitation of the old site's layout.

I snatched this set up when it came out. As noted before, one of the best upgrades to a previous edition. Kind of wild that the first film was such a bad transfer given it isn't exactly an "old" release.

Bradavon wrote: Hasn't this comparison been uploaded before? It's very good to say the least.

I own the Single Disc Matrix R4 and would pick up the box set if I could find the R1 Box set cheap enough. The UK R2 is still cut and the R4 ONLY features The Animatrix with the English not also Original Japanese dub (both are on the R1, the UK R2 only has English too).

I can't find the R1 Box set for less than £25.99 which is to much for me (especially when the UK R2 is £16.99)

It was £45 when I got it (admittedly from the Mrs for Christmas). The article isn't new, but the screen caps are. Originally they were at the old DVDAnswers size and were not cropped. They also suffered from compression issues. I recaptured them all last night (well early hours of the morning) at a larger size and cropped them all. Took ages!

I'm also gradually updating the Star Wars articles with better images, and that is an arduous task.

Hasn't this comparison been uploaded before? It's very good to say the least.

I own the Single Disc Matrix R4 and would pick up the box set if I could find the R1 Box set cheap enough. The UK R2 is still cut and the R4 ONLY features The Animatrix with the English not also Original Japanese dub (both are on the R1, the UK R2 only has English too).

I can't find the R1 Box set for less than £25.99 which is to much for me (especially when the UK R2 is £16.99) -

The new Matrix transfer in the LE and UM collections has to be among one of the best looking transfers I have ever seen. The 1st R1 transfer was clearly inferior on so many levels and this new transfer blows it to complete shreds. It's well worth the $'s.

F uck that, I thought. I've got exams coming up and there's no way I can afford to take time out to watch some lo-jack Keanu flick.

"Sure thing, dude. I'll make it down to the cinema this Friday."

Uh-huh...

And so it goes that I missed what could have been one of the most innovative cinema-going moments of my life. When it came out on VHS and DVD, that same friend who couldn't stop talking about this blasted movie kept bugging me to borrow his video. I took it, and it lay on my window ledge for over a month.

He then asked me if I'd seen the film. I replied that I hadn't got around to it. He said he wanted it back and so I gladly lifted the buren off my shoulders. That day I gave it back to him, and he asked my teacher during art-class if he could play it in class - my teacher was cool like that. Draw him a pic of Spidey and he'd orgasm and give you an 'A'. And he loved to keep movies running whilst we compiled our critical studies. Being the busy bee that I was, my attention was utterly focussed on my work, and the ambient noise of the classroom drowned out the sound from the movie.

"Dude, look! Look!"

He hadn't put on the film until about thirty minutes into the half-hour lesson, and the lesson was damn-near over. So I figure "what the heck - I'll just pretend to be interested for a few minutes and I'll pack my s hit and leave."

The next thing I see is some dude covered in slime, looking out of a pink pod at billions of other people encased inside similar pink pods. As far as the eye could see, there were pink pods down the sides of vast, Giger-esque towers (I was especially aware of this influence because I was researching Giger at the time...needless to say, my critical studies were about to take a whole new form...) with huge bolts of electrical lightning roaring between them and within them, human beings lying dormant.

As the amaceated skin-head gets 'flushed' out of his pod, the teacher starts dismissing us and I'm like "whoa, wait... wait..."

I turn around to see my friend standing there, grinning.

With a sheepish-looking face, I ask "hey...uh...?"

"yeah, go for it."

And so I took the video home and watched it from start to finish.

I was kicking myself.

Taking the Red Pill:

Image Removed

Whilst my fandom of The Matrix wouldn't start for another four years upon the release of the simply stunning second installment of what the Wachowskis maintain was envisaged as a trilogy-worth of metaphysical mayhem, the first movie was still in a league of its own when compared to its Hollywood contemporaries and predecessors.

Having been a huge fan of animé since the age of 13 and having been introduced to my first cyberpunk work at the age of 14, I was very aware of where this new neo-noir was coming from. What's more, this was the kind of movie that I'd already seen in my head long before I'd seen it on screen. It was a rush to see my mind be put so well on my TV screen that I certainly wasn't in any hurry to hand my friend's copy of the film back to him. It was smart, fun, furious and disorienting - all the things I felt defined me as a teenager.

In this way, as with the protagonist of the movie, The Matrix was a wonderfully liberating experience.

However, what I began noticing after my second or third viewing of the movie were some of the potential flaws and set-backs. For example, minimal time had been spent on expressing any convincing connection outside of superficiality between Neo and the main love interest, Trinity. There were some painfully childish lines of dialogue where they literally tell you what's going to happen next ("we can't use [the EMP] until [Neo] is out&quot.

Gee. Thanks, Trin.

And then there were the plot holes. How in the world can the system not locate a cookie-baking granny stationed in a sh itty ghetto apartment? And why the Hel is she not unplugged? And if she is unplugged, how come she's able to stay in that one location in both the Matrix and on whichever ship she's from?

And it wasn't just oddities about the Oracle, either.

There was a lot of stuff about Morpheus, too.

"No need to hope, Trinity. I know it!"

If I didn't know better, I'd say this guy was near-desperate. Underneath that sleek apprearance and behind those armless round shades is a man who seems more like a Jehovah's Witness with subsequently dangerous, fanatical tendancies. Surely this guy can't be as 'good' as we think he is.

There were also personal pet-niggles that developled rather quickly - I hated how the machines had been demonised. I mean, s hit, we'd already seen this in the Terminator movies (among countless others) and it might have been neat to see something a bit more fresh. And one thing that always got to me...the ending. I mean, the whole story was not even a story. It was 90 minutes of "is he or isn't he", albeit, very well executed in terms of technique. But it was all kind of cliché with a bit of a one-dimensional "happy ever after" ending with the good guy flying off. I couldn't harbour a seething hatred for it, because it was so stylishly done. But for a film that come out of the minds of some obviously capable directors, I couldn't help but feel that the movie was a little bit too much of...dare I say it...emptiness in a cool outfit. A hollow shell, at least compared to what it could have been. Ironically, the movie became an emboddiment of its central Baudrillardian conceit - a lack of meaning and definition beyond the surface appearance.

It was just like any other movie, only with substantially more style over an above-average but ultimately inconclusive substance.

Walking through the door...

Image Removed

The Morpheus of the shooting script was slightly different from the Morpheus of the final cut of the movie.

Fishburne's dogmatic freedom fighter seemed more "dogmatic" and less "freedom" oriented in the Wachowskis script. Neo being but one in a string of potentials who - like himself - had been made to believe in their false messianism, and were left dead after confrontations with Agents bearing striking similarity to that which Neo faced in the movie's climax. They, however, weren't so lucky as to be resurrected as a 'Master of the Matrix' à la Neo, and were but forgotten.

However, with Morpheus effectively being 'the exposition guy' throughout the movie, the Brothers probably decided that it would taint his credibility if Morpheus were seen to be that..well...utterly insane.

There were hints of that left, both in the passage I quoted in the previous section and in the Oracle revealing how even she could not pierce through Morpheus' powerful obtuseness; but now it could simply be alternative as Morpheus being the 'good Christian', the 'steadfast believer'.

In effect, he retains his now-popular dubbing as the John The Baptist figure of the piece.

This is one of many place in which The Matrix Reloaded exceeded, my expectations.

No longer viewing the Wachowskis world as filtered through the eyes of Morpheus and his ship, we are brought into the greater context. We are brought into Zion. Here, we see that Morpheus' opinion - whilst popular with many - is never to far away from the Cypher-like scepticism that seemed like such a gross perspective to have in the first film.

He is met with hostility for his views by superiors and peers alike. BUt it is that same unwavering, charasmatic power and belief that jerked Neo out of his slumber that works its magic throughout the people of Zion. In the Enter The Matrix game footage, co-scpetic lovers Locke and Niobe talk of Morpheus power over Zion, and the fact that .35 million sentinals inching their way towards the gates of Zion rendered everyone petrified.

Everyone but Morpheus.

As Niobe says, "you need him".

But, the Wachowskis being indifferent to the concept of religious subscription, wouldn't have Morpheus' faith be unshakeable. Morpheus personal extrapolation of and absolute resolution with the prophecy becomes his downfall.

Rewatching The Matrix after Reloaded and Revolutions (as I did today, which is what inspired this article) Morpheus comes across as an almost tragic figure. Seeing that child-like glee flash over his eyes in the first installment every time Neo does something out of the ordinary or when he responds to Neo's enquiry of the Oracle's revelation to him by saying "[she said] I would find the One" with a confident smile across his face...Morpheus elicits a sense of immense pathos that we might associate with those following the strict laws of many of the world religions.

Morpheus is disillusioned, trapped within his own 'Matrix'.

Unlike Neo, however, Morpheus doesn't just throw up and get over it...throughout Revolutions he is a broken man who seems to have abandoned his gift for inspired speech, but never stops trying to find some light in the darkness that has so suddenly and violently destroyed his entire sense of life. When Morpheus is asked why he wants to search the Matrix for Neo without a head-jack into the system, he can but implore Captain Roland of the Mjolnir with an uncharacteristically timid-yet-sincere "please...for me".

In many ways, this is what makes Morpheus last declarative speech of the trilogy one of the greatest. Whilst the pre-Architect summoning Morpheus gives in his "we are soldiers" speech of Reloaded tingles the spine and spurs the heart, it is the soul-shattering bleakness of his proclamation that keeps you hanging on to the end of Revolutions after an exhausting Zion seige.

For the first time in the trilogy, the lexical compostion of his speech is full of "don't know"s...which makes the final "I know" all the more powerful.

"Neo is doing what he believes he must do.

I don't know if what he's doing is right, and I don't know if he'll reach the machine city...and if he does, I don't know what he can do to save us.

But I do know that as long as there is a single breath in his body...he will not give up.

And neither can we."

~Morpheus~

Morpheus is coming to terms with Neo's potential to save both man and machine-kind as being a real sacrifice, and not just some sleek, airy-fairy surgical procedure. This is also where the stylitic departure of Revolutions from Reloaded takes its cue. Neo's journey is no longer one of super-coolness, arrogance and blind brute (pun not intended). It has instead become a journey through "the desert of the real" wrought with pain, death, suffering and clasping onto the smallest strain of hope ("the quintessential human delusion", as the Architect would have it) in order to acheive a state of enlightenment that Buddha would be proud of.

Built of light...

Image Removed Throughout human history we have been dependent on machines to survive.

Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

~Morpheus~

Morpheus gives us a highly summarised outline of transpired events that reshaped the face of the planet. It was pretty obvious that the one-dimensionality of the first movie that was predicated upon the basis that a relatively unreliable Morpheus was our guide through this world would extend to every facet of said story.

One such facet was the viewers opinion of the machines as dictated by Morpheus.

Despite Morpheus' confession that the Earth's sky was destroyed by men and not machines, the movie seems to propagate this sense of 'good' versus 'bad' throughout the entire thing. There is no compromise.

As long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be free.

~Morpheus~

Like I said; no compromise.

What's interesting is that Neo seems more open to change than the guy who believes beyond any doubt that he will kick the machines' collective a ss. Neo levels with Morpheus about what he's found out about the systematic manufacturing of the prophecy and the One with a straight-but-solemn face. He's bummed, sure. But it's Morpheus whose life-long illusion would be shatered.

In the kind of symmetry whose opportunity on which only the Wachowskis could capitalise, Neo echoes the words of his ex-mentor right back at him from way back when he first introduced Neo to the nightmare of his CG dream: "I didn't say it would be easy - I just said it would be the truth".

But Neo's relative open-mindedness compared to Morpheus was something that was evident ever since the end of the first movie. That final speech (in the script version) is actually much more moderate in tone, wording and central ideal than what Morpheus has been yelling at us for the last 90 minutes. But - with confused and underwhelmed test-audiences damanding something more along the lines of a George Bush declaration of war, the Brothers made Neo's final speech more overtly empowering to humans, Morpheus' cause and himself.

In other words, Neo's final words in the first film are coming from a place of egocentric power.

Isn't it wonderful, then, that after six months of "show[ing] these people what [the machines] don't want them to see", Neo is sitting in the Neb mess hall confused about what the Hel he's supposed to do next? "Surely this can't be what I'm here to do", he's thinking. And sure enough, the machine army that's just perched itself of Zion's front lawn catalyses the events that follow, and Neo continues his journey within this web of illusions. It is his uniquely questioning nature, however, that allows him to ascend come Revolutions. He's willing to make changes that no One before him ever did.

Seeking out the Oracle:

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It never ceases to amaze me how - as more and more of the deceptions are stripped away - just how differently we view the Oracle in each film.

In the first movie, we know only what we're told: she's old, she's wise, and "she can help you to find the path".

There are no questions. There are no 'if's or 'but's. Morpheus insists that one not view the Oracle's words as correct or incorrect. Which is effectively asking one to make that same leap of dogmatic faith as Morpheus because it overlooks one of the core practices of all philosophy: critical reason.

It is this critical reason that the second film borders on. She challenges Neo with two choices "acceptance" or "rejection".

In other words, you either trust her or you don't.

In Reloaded, we find out a number of facts that suddenly fill up the gaping holes left in the first film. Facts that suddenly shift your perspective of all that has transpired so far in Reloaded and the 90 minutes of the first film that preceded that.

The Oracle is not 'human'. She is a computer program. In other words, she's from the same place as the relentless Smith program that we so fear throughout the trilogy. This suddenly puts the Oracle of the first film into a different light. Furthermore, it challenges our view on those oh-so-evil machines. I still remember how my face went from a confused crumple into a childish grin as I heard Neo utter the words "you're not human, are you" in response to the Oracle's intent to "get the obvious stuff out of the way". What was even more great was the reply, "it's tough to get any more obvious than that".

Totally. Friggin'. Human.

The fact that it makes perfect sense is what makes it even more disturbing to the viewers who took Morpheus' words in the first movie as law. For me, I just couldn't stop smiling. The toughest part was trying to quieten all the thoughts now racing through my head as I listened to the rest of what the Oracle had to say.

Finally, almost half-way through the second film of the trilogy, the Wachowskis had begun the journey of breaking out of the Matrix...

Whilst the Architect differs in his approach to the idea, he seems to concur with his 'bastard son', Smith, that life is relatively purposeless. At the end of the movie, Smith lists all the "vagaries of human perception" he could imagine that might be motivating Neo to continue to defy his logic. Interestingly, one of those "delusions" is love - and Smith specifically states how "only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love".

And yet, Rama-Kandra, Kamala, Sati...even the Oracle seem to deem love as an important and essential factor. And they're not even 'human'.

But what is this term, 'human'? We use it to describe our species, yes. But we also use terms like "inhuman" and "humanitarian", both derivatives of the word "human". The semantic implication of the word "human" is one of morals, decency and love - things that we human beings take for granted as being our sole domain of function. And yet, here we stand, confronted with computer programs who are expressing those same "temporary constructs". As with Project #3501 in Ghost In The Shell, sentient life that has been allowed to evolve is expressing traits that we previously considered to be applicable only to us.

This is why Sati really is so important.

As Smith says, they are all "as artificial as the Matrix itself". Our own, self-created Matrices; like Morpheus being trapped within his construct of the prophecy, or Neo trying desperately to figure out what the next step in his journey must be, or even Trinity who is willing to go wherever Neo goes without ever looking back to ask "why". Are they are all "trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose"?

Perhaps.

But this seems to be what we're all after from birth till death.

We live our lives punctuated by the constant attempt to define it, to label it.

And that's what Neo learns at the end of the film. That to break free of that simulacrum of obsession with the 'surface of self' and to truly break free, he must realise the one universal concept that fuels all sources of liberation:

Chris i could get you lossless (.PNG) R4 DVD shots of the Ultimate collection if you'd like me to (which is said to have better quality), whoever you'd need to tell me how to take the shots, since i don't have PowerDVD, i have Sonic Cineplayer and WinDVD7. I'd just need the exact hour:minute:second for every shot. But i could try to get a perfect match.

Quote: Originally posted by Chris Gould Well the new transfer in the UE set is much, much better than the old. That's plain to see, even from the images above.Yes, I agree - I am just saying that some people will see more of a difference than others...

The debate on which is better can have so many variables - what TV or display do you use? what DVD player? Even with the screen shots, how is your computer monitor set up? At the end of the day, I am happy with my original R4 of The Matrix and with my Region 1 box set. I didn't bother with the other 2 movies and waited for the box set to come out.

At the end of the day, if you can, the best way is to sample the different versions and buy what you as the individual thinks is best.

Quote: Originally posted by Chris Gould The reason there's a disclaimer at the bottom of the article is because all of the images are compressed. I saved them using Photoshop's 'Save for Web' feature at 60% quality, and if you compare the file sizes of most of the images there's only a couple of KB difference between most of them. However, a few, such as the ones mentioned, show a greater difference. I've not checked the bitrates of the titles at these specific times in the film, but it's conceivable that there are major differences (especially with the latest release, because compression techniques have improved somewhat since 1999).

The article is meant to provide the reader with an overview of the differing versions. If you actually read the beginning of the article you'll notice that I never categorically state that the region four release is superior (hence the reason I use words like reportedly, and write 'superior' in quotes). I think we can all agree that the new release looks a lot better in terns of contrast and colour timing, and I can assure you that it's much cleaner and sharper.

Fair enough, but just going on the screenshots provided, I just couldn't see how someone could say that the R4 was superior. Because although I need glasses, I can still see that the R1 shots were just slightly better.

However, the new Ultimate transfer is better in almost every aspect. Some scenes are a bit darker, such as the shot of the Sentinel, but other than that, it makes the original fit in much better with the sequals. And by doing so, it makes the film easier to watch knowing that it isn't the red-headed step child of Matrix II a & b.

The reason there's a disclaimer at the bottom of the article is because all of the images are compressed. I saved them using Photoshop's 'Save for Web' feature at 60% quality, and if you compare the file sizes of most of the images there's only a couple of KB difference between them. However, a few, such as the ones mentioned, show a greater difference. I've not checked the bitrates of the titles at these specific times in the film, but it's conceivable that there are major differences (especially with the latest release, because compression techniques have improved somewhat since 1999).

The article is meant to provide the reader with an overview of the differing versions. If you actually read the beginning of the article you'll notice that I never categorically state that the region four release is superior (hence the reason I use words like reportedly, and write 'superior' in quotes). I think we can all agree that the new release looks a lot better in terms of contrast and colour timing, and I can assure you that it's much cleaner and sharper than any previous release.

Well, they all look horrible. A great way to make Super 35 look "good" is to bleach everything one colour, in this case green.

Oh, and we wouldn't want any grain visible, I mean that is what actually contains the image. Instead we will try as hard as possible to make this film look like it was shot on video - with a green filter of course.

I'm sorry, but going back to the original comparison between the "superior" R4 version and the Ultimate Matrix transfer, and now with the addition of the original R1 transfer, I have to say where on Earth are you getting this so-called adjective of "superior" to decribe the R4 version? The original R1 version is clearly superior to the original R4 version. Both in clarity and in contrast.

Over here in the US, i went to this movie in the theaters five times. In one specific theater, they had the code dropping only the word "Matrix" onto the screen. And on the pay-per-view showings on DirecTV in 1999, their letterbox version only said "Matrix" as well (i've got it on VHS, and i've shown people this). I've noted no visual differences between the two, other than the title. Don't know why they did that...

When I watch The Matrix instead of the code writing THE MATRIX it just has MATRIX. This only occurs at the start of the film (and during the credits it says THE MATRIX) but why the hell does it just say MATRIX? I have the old DVD (region 4) of The Matrix and that has MATRIX so why the change? (BTW, Reloaded and Revolutions both have THE MATRIX RELOADED; THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS)

I picked these movies up and have yet 2 watch them but i will. Luckaly i wasn't a big matrix fan when it first came out and i'm happy to have waited 4 this new set. Thanks Chris 4 these great comparisons (laong with star wars).

I bought the original R4 of the Matrix but then didn't buy the sequels because I thought they would bring out a box set and liuckily I was right! It's a pity they didn't release this earlier for other people....

1) Are there any technical differences between Region 2 and 4 DVDs in general? (Other than the actual region!). Am I correct in assuming they are both PAL, 25fps, etc?

2) Has the UK version of this box-set been cut again (I think the cut applied to the headbutting between Morpheus and Smith in the bathroom in the first film - not aware of any other cuts - if anyone knows of any, please enlighten me).

3) If it has been cut, do you recommend getting the Region 4 version as a way of obtaining an uncut version of the film? I assume packaging, content, extras, etc will all be identical, the only differences being the region of the discs, and the films not bein man-handled by the BBFC?

I'll translate the thing about EE, I'm too lazy too do all video. I'll do whole video and audio tomorrow maybe if anyone wants it. But some R2UK reviews should finally (it was after all released 6/12) be out then.

Quote: But all changes aren't good, because they've instead used a lot of Edge Enhancement which will disappoint many projectors owners. Even though the other movies have EE, though not as much as the first part.

....I could accept if there were only a few scenes with EE, but not when it exist so much, which leads to that I unfortunately can't give it the highest score.

Translated from:

Ah, sorry Chris. Well, it wasn't so clear really. Though I see it now.

I love the first film but thought the duff sequels didnt do it any justice (and yes I did understand them!). Just wanted to say thanks to Chris for his tireless work on great articles, The star wars ones were great and this one too. I really enjoy reading them.

As it says above, this is a comparison between the PAL R4 (supposedly the best of the old versions) and the new NTSC R1 release. Unfortunately I've not been able to translate what that site said about the video, but there really isn't a large problem with edge enhancement from what I've seen.

I've seen this so-called review where they make reference to the extensive edge-enhancement. Put frankly, it's bogus. I believe it came from thread on the Home Theater Forum, and from a guy who had a chip on his shoulder to disuade people from buying the new set.

It looked like the guy used screencaps that had post-capture "sharpening", giving the image that extra edge enhancement look. If you know what I mean.

This new transfer is great. I'd say a bit better than the Star Wars discs. Well, not really when it comes to grain, but certainly in contrast.

If I can obtain a copy at the right price (i.e. very cheaply) then yes. However, I've given more than my fair show of money to Warner as far as the Matrix series goes, so it really will have to be cheap. The R1 is reportedly inferior to the R4 anyway, so the new R1 will look even better by comparison.